50 BJP MLAs revolt against Gupta

50 BJP MLAs revolt against Gupta
R B SINGH

LUCKNOW, APRIL 27: Trouble is brewing for Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta with 50 BJP MLAs having revolted against him, alleging that his style of functioning had hurt the party. They have, interestingly, demanded mid-term assembly polls and not sought his replacement. Gupta has called them for a meeting.

They have also lashed out at state party chief Om Prakash Singh for his remark at Varanasi that the party MLAs who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections had been identified. ``People who are themselves knee-deep in corruption are blaming others,'' they said today, adding they would soon name the ``mahabhrasht'' (most corrupt) among the party ministers.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a leader of the group, Bharat Singh, said Gupta at his age had nothing more to achieve but his style of functioning was ruining their reputation in their constituencies. The party would be routed in the next Assembly elections if he continued as Chief Minister for some more time, he said.

Gupta is a weak and incompetent Chief Minister and cannot refurbish the image of the party, another party MLA said.

When the Assembly session was on yesterday, these MLAs were holding a meeting to vent their ire against Gupta and his colleagues in the ministry. Those who attended the meeting included Bharat Singh, Sher Bahadur Singh, Chabu Patel, Major J P Singh, Lav Kush, Suraj Bhan Singh, Tejbhan Singh, Arun Pratap Singh and Ravindra Shukla.

They said while Kalyan Singh had brought about his downfall by promoting controversial corporator Kusum Rai, Gupta was promoting a businessman, Sandeep Bansal, who had begun functioning as an extra-constitutional authority like Kusum Rai.

They said Kusum Rai never accompanied Kalyan Singh during the day but this businessman was like a shadow. ``Bansal remains with the Chief Minister even when the party MLAs come to meet him,'' they said.

The legislators said there was no use in continuing as MLAs when they could not get done any work for their constituencies. ``The Chief Minister and his ministers do not like to even meet us,'' they complained. Bharat Singh said before the Rajya Sabha elections they had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister listing their demands but these had not been accepted yet, he said.

He said they had demanded hiking of the allocations for the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna, Sunishchit Rozgar Yojna and Vidhayak Nidhi Fund but not a single demand had been accepted. ``When a state like Bihar can raise vidhyak nidhi from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore, why not UP?'' he asked.